FREE INSTITUTE OF SCIENCE 
VEGETATION OF SOUTH FLORIDA 
149 
Panicum hemitomon Schult., a tall grass (6-12 dm. tall) from stout rootstocks. 
A vine, Ampelopsis arborea (L.) Rusby (=Cissus bipinnata (Michx.) Nutt.), 
climbs up the maiden-cane. Back on the right is a hammock with tall pine 
forest in the rear. The reed marsh at the east end of Lake Flirt is followed 
along the canal by willow thickets which fringe that evasive body of water 
called Bonnet Lake. The water-lettuce, Pistia stratiotes L., was floating on 
the surface of Lake Flirt, as also the water-hyacinth, Piaropus crassipes 
(Mart.) Britton, which in dense masses (Plate IX, Fig. 2) was anchored be- 
tween the clumps of willows. 
Lake Hicpochee is a large lake with a basin like a soup plate, surrounded 
by saw-grass marsh. Along the north border of the lake were associations of 
bonnets, Nymphaea (Nuphar) advena Soland, associated with the pondweed, 
Potamogeton sp. The border of the lake is flat with a green rim of low plants 
which along the east shore of the lake consisted of the tall fern, Acrostichum 
aureum L., saw-grass, Cladium effusum (Sw.) Torr. (=Mariscus jamaicense 
Crantz), Britt. Sagittaria lancifolia L., and the herbs Kosteletzkya altheæi- 
folia (Chapm.) A. Gray in flower (June 21), Hibiscus grandiflorus Michx., 
and Pluchea purpurascens (Sw.) DC. Scattered along the shores of the lake 
were noted low custard-apple trees, Annona glabra L., willows, Salix sp., 
waxberry, Myrica (Cerothamnus) ceriferus (L.) Small, elder, Sambucus 
canadensis L. Over these shrubs climbed a vine, Ampelopsis arborea (L.) 
Rusby, and a moon-flower, Calonyction aculeatum (L.) House. The water- 
lettuce, Pistia stratiotes L., floated on the surface of the lake in extensive rafts. 
Lake Okeechobee.—Lake Okeechobee is a beautiful body of clear water 
almost circular in shape and about 48 kilometers (30 miles) across, and is the 
largest freshwater lake wholly within the United States except Lake Michi- 
gan. At mean level it covers an area of 189,751 hectares (468,860 acres). 
At the high stage, its surface is about 6.8 meters (22.5 feet) above tide level 
and at low water, 5.7 meters (19 feet). The lake is quite shallow, the deepest 
places not exceeding 6 to 7 meters at low water and the average depth is 3.657 
meters (12 feet). It shows several islands at the southern end, viz., Observa- 
tion, Rita, Torry and Kreamer. Torry Island is covered with hammocks, acres 
in extent, surrounded by dense growths of custard-apple trees with curiously 
buttressed or branched trunks. Access to this island is made difficult by ex- 
tensive liquid mud flats which surround it and in which grow the maiden-cane, 
Panicum hemitomon Schult., bulrush, Scirpus validus Vahl., water-hyacinth, 
